Bad weather at sea is keeping kayaker Tim Taylor ashore in Dunedin. He paddled in to Port Chalmers on Wednesday after being driven ashore by fog.

Tim Taylor.

'I was planning on going right around, but it was so foggy,” says Tim.

'Literally couldn't see 10 feet in front of me, so I just had to pull the pin about lunch time. I came into Port Chalmers and people met me from there.”

He's also been waiting for his third SPOT tracker to be couriered to him. This tracker, his helmet cam and some dirty underwear were stolen while he camped at the southern end of All Day Bay last weekend.

The paddle to Dunedin was made without the tracker, disappointing the hundreds of people following progress each day on Tim's website.

No arrests have been made. Oamaru police are enquiring locally and waiting for the thieves to turn on the tracker to reveal their location.

Constable Howard Jackson of the Oamaru police says they are hoping the publicity about the theft will force the thieves to dump the goods, including the SD card on Tim's helmet cam, which holds the photographic record of the trip so far.

'I'm expecting a new one tomorrow,” says Tim.

'SPOT company has been really good. They said they would come to sort me out.”

It's Tim's third SPOT tracker. The first gave up after Cook Strait at the new year.

From Dunedin, Tim is planning to paddle down the coast past Karitane and round the Caitlins before crossing Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island.

The plan is to treat it the same as Cook Strait, to wait for the right conditions and cross in one paddle. At about 20km it is less than a full day paddle, says Tim.

'I'll be treating it carefully, but try and hit it right across.

'By getting the weather window, and being very careful with it, I think we should get through it.”

He's not calling into the township at Half Moon Bay because that's a bit of a paddle in, says Tim.

'It's been a real good run all the way down the South Island; the weather's been real good.

'It's been good to see dolphins, an albatross and things like that.”

The Dunedin newspaper, the Otago Daily Times, reports Tim has been flooded with support from Otago residents after the theft. There were offers of money and outdoor clothing – but none for new underwear.
The theft at All Day Bay has clouded memories of one of the highlights of his trip.
While paddling through extremely rough water to get ashore a couple of endangered Hector's dolphins provided an escort to the beach.
'Normally, they check you out and then head off again, but these guys stayed with me right up to the shoreline,” says Tim.
He paddled out of Tauranga on November 27 intending to become the first person to kayak around New Zealand in a single voyage. The voyage is about 5500km and he's expecting it to take about six months.